Camaraderie
by GenEn
Summary: When Team Rocket attacks Altomare, three men from Silph Co. step in to help solve the crisis; but they bring many more problems with them. Some Altoshipping  Ash x Latias  Working title
1. In the Beginning

Alright, my first story! It picks up during the events of "Pokemon Heroes." You don't have to have seen it to understand it, nor does it spoil very much (if anything at all). It does have some Altoshipping, so turn away now if you don't like that kind of thing.

"Speaking"

_"Telepathic speaking"_

I own nothing except for my OC's; Cain, Bastian, and Damian (Who is, by the way, not that jerk who previously owned Ash' charmander. I didn't know there was a "Damian" in Pokemon until after I wrote this).

* * *

All was dark and quiet in the late evening of Alto Mare. The sound of a door opening and closing was easily audible in the empty streets and canals. Two young men stepped out onto the walkways and could only see each other through the dark because they each wore white clothing. The older of the two stood in the doorway and spoke to his friend, who was already walking off.

"Cain, the museum's obviously going to be closed this late at night. Let's stay in our rooms and grab some sleep…"

The younger man looked at him, still walking forward while enjoying the warm breeze in the dark.

"Damian didn't seem to think it'd be closed, he told me that he'd be checking it out, and hasn't come back to the hotel since. If he's still there, maybe he can open the doors up for us." Cain beckoned for his companion to start following him. "Besides, Bastian, you slept enough on the plane ride over here. Let's take a look around anyways while everyone's still asleep."

Bastian was a tall, 21-year old man with short black hair and sharp facial features. He wore a white overcoat and dark pants, both of which were very clean. He just sighed and figured it was typical Cain, very awake even at midnight… what a pain in the neck. Cain had a somewhat conflicting appearance with Bastian- he was 18 and more than half a foot shorter, with longer, swept back dark brown hair. His eyes were a deep grey and always wide open. He, too, wore a white coat with dark pants, but they were well worn as opposed to Bastian's tidy attire. He also had heavy leather boots and a large belt on, which gave him a sturdier appearance than his lanky partner.

Bastian began to run towards and catch up to Cain, giving up his hope for some rest.

"So, have you ever been to Alto Mare before?" Bastain started conversationally.

"Nah, I've never even left Kanto since my family moved there."

"Hm. But imagine the history behind it! There's this ancient architecture, of course I can't miss the canal structure, the engineering used to build buildings on the water-"

"Plus those guardian Pokémon I read about. There are statues of them over there, see? "

Cain pointed to a pair of concrete statues 50 feet tall, visible in the little moonlight, with a dragon sitting atop each one- Latias and Latios.

Bastian didn't look as interested in the mythical Pokémon.

"Yeah, but there are only myths and some mosaics concerning them, I'm more interested in the architecture…"

"You're always talking about architecture and ruins, I'll bet you'd like looking into the Pokémon if you took your eyes off the rocks," Cain teased.

As they were talking, the two had made their way down several streets and were approaching the Museum of Alto Mare. But when Cain was about to step into the main plaza in front of the Museum, a gate shot up out of the ground and blocked the way with eerily writhing bars.

Cain jumped back a step.

"What was that! Is… Is there a curfew or something?" He said hesitantly.

The clanging sound of more bars shooting up out of the ground echoed down the streets from behind them, leaving only some side street as the pair's only open path.

"Eh… I don't like the looks of these bars. This way!" Cain took off down the side street, Bastian following.

"Cain, look- the windows are being barred too! I can hear more walls going up behind us.. it sounds like they're converging on that plaza."

Cain and Bastian ran down random paths, trying to find a way through the lockdown in a city they were very unfamiliar with. Meanwhile, they didn't notice an unnaturally large armored shellfish silently stalking them as it bounded across rooftops. Violence being it's only nature, the bony creature prepared to leap down on its prey and tear them apart with the powerful sickles it had for arms, when it heard the screech of an Aerodactyl several blocks away. The true targets were elsewhere. Remembering its mission, the Kabutops pivoted on its clawed feet and headed in the direction that its partner called from.

. . .

"Latias, look out!"

Ash Ketchum was clumsily steering a gondola along the canals, the only unblocked passage towards the museum and Latios, who was captured along with the Soul Dew in order to power the Defense Mechanism of Alto Mare. Latias was floating slowly ahead of him, the pure white and red dragon looking out for any danger ahead of them as they made their way to find the DMA and Latios. But the Aerodactyl that had been sent to capture the young psychic dragon was a predator, and naturally stalked them silently as it closed in on the dragon and human. The New Master had called upon his power, and would hunt down the Latias as She demanded. Besides, the Aerodactyl wanted revenge for his "murder," caused by a Latios. Seeing the machine that once destroyed Aerodactyl absorbing another of the Latios' species would make a satisfying revenge.

The Aerodactyl closed in on the unaware Latias, picking her up in his talons.

"_Augh!"_

"Wha- Hey, let go!" Ash burst out in sudden anger. Without thinking, he took a running jump off the gondola and managed to get a grip on the fossil Pokémon's tail. The Aerodactyl swung its tail against the concrete buildings, but Ash hung on, although his arms were severely grazed by the friction.

"Heh, it's going to take a lot more than that to shake me off, after all my flying- and falling- with Charizard and Pidgeot. Pikachu, thunderbolt!"

"Pikapi," Pikachu confidently yelled as he fired a bolt at Aerodactyl. The fossil let go of Latias in surprise, though the electricity conducted through him into Ash. The boy dropped into the water just as the predator climbed higher into the sky, out of their range.

"Latias, are you all right?" He called out.

"_I'm fine, those claws didn't hurt too much…" _She gasped when she saw the Aerodactyl bank and swoop down towards them again, charging up a hyper beam in his mouth. _"Watch out!" _Latias telepathically yelled to Ash and Pikachu, making herself invisible and backing into an alcove.

The beast swooped down over the water as he released the laser, this time aiming for the yellow rat that hit him before. Pikachu's agility let him jump to the side and away from the blast, but Ash was left stranded in the line of fire. He took the hit, partially blunted by the water, and was pushed to the bottom of the canal. Pikachu took initiative and jumped out of the water long enough for him to shock Aerodactyl again without the electricity conducting into the water and Ash.

"_Ash! _" Latias dove into the water and pulled him to the surface, cruising forward with him in tow. "_Please, get up… we still need to save Latios... Ash?" _The boy stirred and opened his eyes, conscious but weak from the blow. Humans weren't nearly as sturdy as Pokémon.

For a few moments Ash just relaxed and looked up at Latias and the night sky. He had been through worse; he can save the day now. Latias' brother's life was on the line. He then noticed something bright on a walkway beside the canal. The Trainer asked Latias to pull him to the edge of the water, where there were some water chariots to "borrow".

. . .

Cain and Bastian had managed to find their way to a canal that circled the main plaza in front of the Museum. Like Ash, they had to take this route because the waterways were the only unblocked paths.

Cain spat out some water. "Eh, I'm not big on swimming. Thanks for leading the way, Bastian."

"No problem. Maybe we actually can get into the Museum of Alto Mare after all; it looks like there are some lights on inside. But why don't you arm yourself… This lockdown must be a function of Alto Mare's Defense Mechanism, and someone must have gotten control of it," Bastian said.

"Right." Cain's duty was to protect Bastian during his field work, and was equipped and trained to do so. He pulled out a Pokéball and the two silently crept through the unlocked doors in the museum. Behind them, the plaza began to flood as an exhausted dragon as well as a fifteen-year old boy climbed out of the canals.

Cain and Bastian tried their best to walk through the concrete halls without their footsteps being heard by whoever might be in the building, keeping an eye out for signs of Damian or the whereabouts of the DMA. Cain had some trouble keeping Bastian from marveling at the historical works on the walls, but it wasn't far to their destination- they only had to make a turn down a single long hallway to find the room that was the source of the light. Distant yelling and a loud whirring sound could be heard from the ominous room.

"Wait, I can hear someone saying something," Bastian quietly said.

Cain leaned towards the doorway from the side, trying to remain unseen or unheard until he knew who might have activated the sudden lockdown.

"…What could _you_ do to us? The Dew and DMA will keep us safe from the likes of some middle-aged man!" a female voice scoffed.

A man's deep, silky voice replied. He sounded far younger than "middle aged." "Yes, I wouldn't want to harm the mechanism… but I believe that your boss won't be pleased with your anarchy, hm? Perhaps if I…"

Cain had didn't know who the woman might be, but he knew with certainty that the man's voice had to belong to Damian, his superior.

"WHAT! H-how do you know about him? Our mission was supposed to be top secret!" A colder female voice shouted. "Well, no matter, my power will drown you. You even said yourself, there's nothing you can do to stop ME!"

Bastian leaned over to whisper to Cain.

"Well, sounds like someone's really gotten control of the DMA. I've done a bit of research on it, it's a machine designed to keep the city from flooding. It's supposed to be inoperable, unless it has some relic called a "Soul Dew." That'd explain the lockdown… think you can help Damian and shut it off? …Without damaging the Mechanism, that is."

Cain gave him a mischievous grin. "Gladly. Sit back and relax, bud."

The boy ran released one of his Pokémon out in the hallway, which immediately darted through the archway before it could be clearly seen. Its trainer followed, still holding the other ball. Bastian remained behind; fighting was Cain's thing, he thought. Hopefully he would stop whoever broke into the museum before the DMA was broken or drained of power. Damian told him that they would need it intact to investigate its workings better.

. . .

As Cain entered the room, his attention was immediately brought to a huge, revolving machine that had to be the DMA, which filled nearly the entire space with its intimidating mass. It somewhat resembled an observatory telescope made out of a heavy metal alloy. But where the lens might be there was instead some sort of radar array, plus an arm sticking out halfway up the length of the machine. The extension was orbiting the central device, with a cockpit at the end which held a silver-haired woman in it. At the base of the DMA, a large blue and gray dragon was encased in a floating cage of metal loops. Cain recognized it as Latios, the (supposedly) mythical guardian dragon of the city, adding to the mind-blowing display inside the room. He was curled up and seemed to be in pain and unconscious. After a moment of staring at the machine and dragon in awe, Cain realized that there were more people in the corner- another woman with large hair in dark clothes on the ground, glaring at Damian. Neither of the criminal women seemed to intimidate Damian, who merely stood with his arms crossed, admiring the spectacle. He had long golden hair that went down to his shoulders, and wore a red velvet suit with black leather shoes.

Damian's bright blue eyes glittered as he shifted his calm gaze from the unknown woman to Cain, still standing in the doorway, surprised at Damian's lack of fear in front of the dangerous mechanism.

"Ah, Cain. Excellent timing. Perhaps you would like to aid in arresting these Team Rocket members?"

"Hey shut up, you're not supposed to know who we are!" The angry silver-haired woman in the cockpit yelled. She was getting irritated at this man who wasn't running in fear of her newfound power.

Damian just smiled innocently. "Ah, my mistake. But you really must be removed at once. Cain?"

"Y-Yeah?" Cain was put off guard, as he was prepared for a deadly showdown, not a display of manners from his superior.

"Please incapacitate the young lady piloting that dangerous device for me. I'll apprehend this one over here." Damian turned his attention on the blonde woman and pulled out a pistol and, to everyone's surprise, a military saber. Who uses stuff like that these days?

"Eh… Espeon, quick, use psychic on him! Don't let him hit my gorgeous body with that nasty gun!" She stammered. No reply came.

"Your Espeon has been taken care of. As has your Ariados," Damian calmly revealed to both criminals. "Now Cain, are you going to put a halt to their control over the DMA or not?"

"Right! Go, Cloyster!" Cain finally focused on the DMA and threw a Pokéball down in front of him. A large, grey-shelled oyster popped out in a burst of light. In the depths of the armor was a small black pearl with violent eyes. This "head" had a spike protruding out from above it, with two more large spikes on either side of his shell.

"Cloy!"

"Alright, freeze her with an ice beam!"

But the heavy iron cockpit closed shut and began spiraling up towards the pinnacle of the machine, out of harm's way. The beam instead hit the machine's base and encased it in solid ice.

"Guess we'll have to get more altitude. Cloyster, throw a surf attack at the machine, and then freeze it with ice beam!"

"Cloy-STER!_" _Cloyster clamped his shell shut for a moment, and when it opened back up, a torrent of water burst out of it and towards the machine.

The cockpit, now at the top of the tall room, opened up again.

"Really, you're using water attacks against a machine designed to control floods! That surf is barely a puddle to me. Behold!" The villainess waved her hands and the water rose up into a column and paused. Then it turned back around and rushed towards the Cloyster and his trainer.

"Cloyster, freeze it anyways, we need to keep the upper hand over the water in this room!"

"Cloyster-cloy!"The armored Pokémon fired an ice beam at the body of liquid, freezing it into a smooth wave of ice.

"Now, use icicle spear to shoot her out of the air!"

The Cloyster rolled over to the mass of ice and dug his front spike into it, creating some large cracks. As he pulled the spike out, a sharp crystal remained stuck to it and began glowing with the Pokémon's power. Then it fired at mach speed up straight towards the cockpit. But at that moment, an enormous shattering could be heard reverberating from outside the room; several glass mosaic windows broke and the concrete walls shuddered. The cockpit also closed instantly, faster than the Rocket's reflexes could have done in retaliation to the icicle spear. The ice shattered on impact with the iron doors and fell to the ground, nothing left but powder, and the whole machine began moving in faster, erratic motions.

Cain maintained his composure, sure that he still had a trick to deactivate the DMA. Ever since he arrived in Alto Mare, he knew that Bastian and Damian would only be conducting research, and didn't think there would be much harm in the way. The DMA was a machine purely to _protect_ a town from water, after all, what could it do to attack him inside this room? Yet, glancing at the Latios in the cage, he could tell that it was in a lot of pain, and it would only be right to free the graceful-even-in-peril Pokémon. But following the tremor that ran through the museum, a wet boy a few years younger that Cain ran through the archway into the room, followed by a sleek red dragon. This dragon was far smaller than Latios, maybe half his length at four or five feet. Cain recognized her as Latias, surprised that a human boy would be accompanying her. What he knew about Latias and Latios was little, only a few legends that were in a brochure, but it said that Latias and Latios were never seen out in public, but protected the city from danger. It made sense that they would make an appearance now.

"_Brother!"_

"_Latias! Watch out, there are dangerous people in here," _Latios shot a pained look towards the Team Rocket members, as well as Damian, who had long ago knocked out the blonde with the hilt of his saber and was tying her up in a corner.

"_Don't worry, we got past everything that they've thrown at us… we have to get you out of there!" _Latias telepathically said aloud to Ash and Latios, ignoring the people in or around the DMA. "_Ash, please, help break this cage," _She continued, ramming into it. The loops gave off a nasty shock when she touched it, but Latias ignored the pain; saving her brother was her greatest concern.

Ash and his Pikachu began attacking the cage. The teen tried pulling at the hoops, enduring the pain of the shocks, while his Pokémon charged up a thunderbolt and fired it to no avail.

Cain figured that his little strategy might be in place by now. He also wanted to end the pain for the poor creature and stop the machine from doing any damage.

"Alright, Gengar, knock her out!" He called out to nothing that was visible. Damian, who didn't seem fazed by the quake or the behavior of the DMA, expectantly looked up at the sealed cockpit. A faint "thunk" and a short cry could be heard from within, but nothing else happened. Damian sighed.

"I presume that was your Gengar who snuck inside there? A good effort. Yet, I'm afraid something has damaged the controls and put it out of manual control. That dragon," He gestured towards the Latios that was trying to reach out to the Latias," looks to be unwillingly powering the device. Let us assist them to 'pull the plug' and be done with this skirmish."

Damian walked over to the cage, Cain following, where Ash had been knocked back from Latios by the cage again. He looked up at Damian and saw his sword that he held to his side.

"Hey, you're not going to hurt them are you?" He said protectively, getting up and standing between Damian and the Eon siblings.

"Please, I only wish to help." Damian laid a hand on Ash's shoulder and firmly pushed him to the side, then raised his saber up over his head. Latias suddenly noticed the man ready to strike, and squealed in worry. But as Damian brought his weapon down, it caught between the revolving hoops and stopped them, allowing Latios to be pulled out by the shocked dragon and teen.

"There we go. The DMA should shut down now…" On cue, the humming of the machine was cut off and the whirling slowed to a stop.

Latias collapsed to the floor, looking at her brother with concern. Ash put his hand on her back a moment, then looked up and called to his Pikachu,

"Hey, Pikachu, come over this way!" The two then ran around to the opposite side of the DMA that Cain was standing by.

Sheathing his sword, Damian left the room and turned immediately to look at where Bastian had been hiding outside of the room. Cain wanted to find out a bit more about these legendary Pokémon that he was lucky enough to encounter, and stayed inside with the other group of a teen and the Eon dragons. He courteously stepped around the dragon siblings to see where the black-haired kid had gone. He was astonished to see an old man and a girl tied against the wall by what looked like a web. Both seemed to be almost unconscious, probably from asphyxiation by the webs over their mouths. The Pokémon trainer was pulling away the webs around their waists, and the man staggered forward. Cain ran forward to help support him.

"Wh..who..?" He managed to say, trying to catch his breath and looked around the room. Then the man saw Ash, who was working on pulling the webs binding the girl, who looked to be between his age and Cain's. "Ash! Please… don't let… anyone... touch the dew... Only Latios," He managed to huff and nearly collapsed, nearly crushing Cain. "Ash" looked at the elderly man in concern.

"Don't worry, Lorenzo. Bianca, are you okay?"

She swallowed and began drawing large breaths.

"Y-Yeah.. I just need a second," she replied as she leaned against the wall. "Is Latios… alright?"

"Yeah, Latias and I got here… then some guy with a sword helped us free him." Ash then finally looked over at Cain, who was starting to think of what he had gotten himself into by not leaving immediately. All these people knew each other and the dragons, probably quite personally. He might be interrupting something that he shouldn't know about, but introduced himself anyways.

"Hey... I'm Cain." He started simply, putting his free hand out to Ash, his other one supporting Lorenzo, who was starting to get his breath back.

"I'm Ash. Thanks for helping us out back there! I guess you're a Pokémon trainer, huh?" He replied more enthusiastically than Cain would have thought, as the kid looked over at Cain's Cloyster. The boy was a few inches shorter than Cain, and maybe fifteen years old. His black hair and white-and-red cap were soaking wet, and he had an enthusiastic look on his face, despite being electrocuted by the DMA several times.

"Great to meet ya. Any of you need any help?" He looked to Bianca, who was slightly taller than Ash. She was then probably somewhere between Ash and Cain's ages. She wore a green polo shirt and white skirt with a beret, also white. She stood up and walked towards Latias and Latios, having regained some strength.

"No, you should probably go." Lorenzo had answered before Ash could, and was now standing upright. He had a stern look on his face and looked past Cain, who saw Damian coming back into the room with Bastian behind him. Bastian was going nuts over observing the DMA for the first time, and Damian just walked straight towards Lorenzo while ignoring everyone else.

"A-Alright." Cain figured they didn't want him interrupting whatever they might be doing with the legendary dragons, or have him stealing that "Dew" he had mentioned to Ash. "Oy! Bastian! Let's get some rest now... we'll take a look at the machine tomorrow."

Bastian turned around at hearing his name, and finally noticed Latias and Latios, still resting close together while Bianca kneeled next to them. After a moment, he replied to Cain,

"Okay. Damian, will you be alright?"

"Yes. Cain, you are dismissed." Damian said. "I must speak with this man about the events that have occurred, as the police force and media will probably show up now that the DMA- and presumably the lockdown- have been deactivated."

"Thank you sir." Cain did a small salute, recalling his Cloyster and Gengar (who came down from the now open cockpit, leaving behind the unconscious Rocket inside) and then left through the arch with Bastian they had come through, looking back at the dragons who had been reunited.

. . .

Cain flopped down on the bed at the hotel, not too tired, but going over what just happened in his head.

'_The DMA Bastian and Damian were supposed to be studying was taken over by Team Rocket… then that Guardian Dragon was being used as a power source. I guess that's all that they focus on anyways… technology and rare Pokémon.'_

Bastian had sat down in a chair and immediately pulled out a notebook from his bag and began making notes. While he was writing, he started to speak to Cain.

"So, who were those people in there? The kids didn't look like someone who would take over the Defense Mechanism."

"No, there were some women who took control. They were part of Team Rocket, but Damian stopped one of them. The other was inside the DMA- I knocked her out with Gengar, but the whole thing just kept spazzing out anyways."

"What? It was out of control? Tell me what happened!" Bastian shot at Cain, worried. "We came here to see how it works for Silph Co., and if the controls have been fried, then we're going to back empty handed, and this whole trip is for nothing!"

"Well, it seemed to be operating smoothly until there was some sort of shock wave that ran through the room, and from there it seemed to just spin around. I don't know if it did anything. It stopped once Damian freed the Latios from some sort of cage."

Bastian sighed.

"So now it's powered by mythical Pokémon? That's going to look good in the report… 'technology damaged by felons, powered by Pokémon from fairy tales."

"But they aren't fake, you saw them there! Latias and Latios!" Cain replied, frustrated at Bastian's negative attitude. "Besides, can't you just fix the thing?"

"I don't know... I guess if we actually can power it with . If we can see how it works, maybe we'll be able to build a replica that doesn't need DRAGONS to power it," Bastian said sarcastically. "So what about the other people? Those teenagers that were with the Guardians?"

"Oh yeah, I got their names… the trainer was Ash. Seemed nice enough, he had a Pikachu and went to help untie the other people. There was Bianca, a girl who had been captured for some reason, and she seemed close to the dragons. They're both younger than I am... 16, maybe 17." Cain tried to remember who else was there. "Then there was an old guy, he just collapsed, but recognized Ash. He was tied up too, nearly fainted from how tight the bindings must have been. I think his name was Lorenzo."

"So they didn't do anything to the Mechanism?"

"Aside from shut it off, no. And if Damian told me that pulling the Latios out of the machine's imprisonment would stop it, then that probably wouldn't have hurt it," Cain added.

"Alright. They're none of our concern then.. well, good night." Bastian closed his notebook and left the room.

"'None of our concern?' You're starting to sound like stuffy ol' Damian," Cain teased.

"Or maybe you just enjoy the company of strangers too much," came from Bastian reply from the hallway." Cain shook his head. Bastian was being really aggravating, though he couldn't tell if it was on purpose or if it just came naturally.

* * *

10 pages sure boils down a lot in translation from MSword to ... oh well. Length isn't important (speaking of which, most chapters might not be this long)

Rate it high, rate it low, just give me your opinions so I can hopefully make this into a much better story. Next chapter should be up soon (a week or so)... I've got plenty of free time to write.


	2. A New Crisis

This chapter wraps up the plot of Pokemon Heroes and opens into a new one. Not much else to say here.

Enjoy!

Disclaimers: I own nothing except my OC's; Damian, Cain, and Bastian.

* * *

Damian was confronting Lorenzo at the base of the Defense Mechanism of Alto Mare. Lorenzo seemed anxious, constantly stealing glances back at the machine.

"I don't remember being contacted by Silph Co… Are you sure that our offices gave you permission to investigate the Museum?" The elder asked Damian. The younger man crossed his arms and nodded.

"Yes, our company's President has assured our team that your curator allowed us to come and examine the Defense Mechanism of Alto Mare. We may even activate it if necessary. You have no reason for concern, as we are examining it for the sake of world-wide advances. It's a beautiful piece of engineering, it'd be a shame not to put it to use where it's really needed."

"But activating the machine requires the use of the Soul Dew, and taking it out of the water would destroy our city anyways- why would anyone give you permission to do this?" Lorenzo continued to glance back at the DMA in concern.

"Does it matter? We have the authority to perform our study, and it is completely safe. Besides, if you try to interrupt..." An unsettling smile came onto Damian's face. "I might have to alert national forces to what a dangerous weapon you have at your disposal."

Lorenzo was a bit intimidated by the man's aggressiveness in getting access to the machine.

"Are you blackmailing me? Of course we wouldn't use the machine, not that we, er…" Lorenzo stammered.

"Not that you what? Cannot power it? I am aware that most of the populace on this island firmly believes that the "defense" mechanism can only be activated by a Latios and Soul Dew. Yet other regions have disregarded this weapon as a threat, because they don't believe that those exist. But I can clearly see that they do, and the machine is quite capable of something past defending."

Lorenzo swore in his head. _He's noticed the Soul Dew as well… _

"Yes, well… we still have no intentions on using it for destruction. Besides, the mechanism is broken now, so you don't have to confiscate it," Lorenzo replied, impatient. "Please let it be. Now, I really must leave…"

Damian shook his head.

"That won't be a problem. We may be able to fix it, and if you allow us to do so, I won't have to use force to finish my study. But I suppose that you still hold belief that the Soul Dew is also responsible for keeping water in the city." Damian sighed. Sure, the Dew is a real artifact that powers a machine, but how could it magically control the earth's currents and tides? Build a dam or something. "...And I can see that there is something you'd like to attend to." Damian turned to leave. "I will return tomorrow to begin my business."

Lorenzo sighed heavily once the man had walked out the front doors. He might look handsome and charming to the younger folk, but clearly had no concern for the sake of Altomare. But that didn't matter at the moment; he had to get the Soul Dew back to the Guardians' Garden now. It had been out of the pool for too long, and could die at any moment.

"Latios, are you strong enough to return the Soul Dew now?" Lorenzo asked.

"_Yes." _He slowly levitated up off the floor, albeit unsteadily, and flew up to the DMA and pulled out a tiny orb from a socket in the DMA. It was the size of a baseball and had a very smooth surface, like glass.

"_Something looks wrong with it; it's lost its luster…"_

Latias flew up beside him to look at the Dew alongside her brother.

"_You're right… Dad… Will it still bring water to the city?" _She asked aloud telepathically.

"Perhaps, but we should still return it to its fountain. The longer it's out of the waters, the smaller the chances of survival it has," Lorenzo answered. Latias' eyes looked saddened from the possibility of losing the city, as well as her last connection to her father. She and Latios immediately vanished from sight and flew right out the shattered windows.

Lorenzo, Bianca and Ash were left in the museum. Up until now, Ash and Bianca had been sitting with Latias and Latios as they enjoyed their reunion. They had listened silently but intently to Damian and Lorenzo's exchange.

"Well, I should probably stay here and give a cover-up story to the officials," The elder told them. Sure enough, flashing lights and alarms could finally be heard out in the plaza. "Bianca, Ash, you should probably leave through the back passages, I don't hear the sirens back there yet. I don't want them investigating you, and we can't have them finding out anything about Latias and Latios' location."

The two teens nodded, and Bianca told Ash to follow her out an exit in the back.

Lorenzo coughed some more, thinking up an alibi to keep the officers from looking for Latios and Latias. Then there was that whole "research" mess that the science people added to this crisis...

. . .

Bianca and Ash walked out a door onto a balcony high off the ground, being sure to close the door behind them. Ash looked to the left and could see a small forest of trees behind the museum, and knew that that's where Latias and Latios' Garden must be. Now that the Kabutops and Aerodactyl seemed to have vanished along with the bars from the lockdown, it was much calmer night, save for the sirens and lights of the confused police officers trying to make their way to whoever had taken control of the DMA.

"There's a stairway down here that will lead to the Pokécenter… that's where you're staying, right?" Bianca asked Ash.

"Yeah. I remember this place… it's where I mistook you for Latias and chased you down that way," he laughed a bit and looked down on the city, trying to see if he could track the route that she and Bianca had (unwittingly) led him through. It was hard to believe it was less than half a day ago that that happened.

Bianca smiled too, then spoke to Ash again.

"Thanks for helping free us and Latios, by the way. It's really fortunate that Latias met you yesterday, or nobody might have come to stop those thieves."

"Well, Latias and I didn't help too much. Those men were the ones who finally broke the cage holding Latios," Ash admitted.

"I don't trust them," Bianca scowled. "That older man had a gun, and was arguing with grandpa. Something seemed sick about him. And now that they've seen Latias and Latios, they might try and look for their Garden…"

Ash thought about the brown haired young man he met. He looked kind enough, and Ash could tell that he had a bond with his Pokémon. Ash knew that kind of thing. But if they had been armed, then that meant they would have aimed to kill in some situation… Ash couldn't think about this for long before his ever-hungry stomach took over his thoughts. Eventually Bianca led Ash back to the Pokécenters (which he never would have found by himself) and they parted ways for the night.

. . .

Two sleek dragons emerged out of thin air in a heavily wooded park. Hundreds of small Pokémon were sleeping in the branches, on the ground, or for the nocturnal ones, flying overhead. Many of them stirred as they saw the legendary Pokémon fly past, but disregarded it and quickly fell asleep again.

A fountain was placed at the far end of the garden, with standing water in the basin, but no water was falling from it. It must have stopped within a few hours. At the bottom of the basin was a small, circular pedestal. Latios held the Soul Dew in both of his arms, unable to grasp it with only three claws in one paw. The Dew was dark and looked to have some fell cloud inside, but it glowed a bit where it touched Latios' body. He gently placed it in the fountain, which caused some water to dribble weakly from the top, but nothing else happened. The Dew remained dark and tarnished.

"_What's wrong with it, brother?" _The smaller, red dragon asked, concern in her voice.

"_Although Dad's Soul Dew has to be taken to the Defense Mechanism to activate it, removing it from the pool also corrupts it, and the soul inside starts to die," _Her older brother replied.

"_That doesn't sound like a very 'protective' machine if it kills the Soul Dew," _Latias huffed. _"So, is there anything we can do to fix it?"_

Latios was silent, looking into the pool at the little dull orb within.

"…_Brother?"_

"_Dad's soul is what keeps the flow of water coming to this island. But now it's been mostly drained by the machine, and can't recover, let alone keep the water here. But if it had a new soul to power-"_

"_WHAT!" _Latias suddenly squealed loudly, "_Brother, if you even think for a second that I'm going to let you sacrifice yourself like dad did, then… then…" _Latias was beginning to panic, her concern for her brother rising. _"I just got you back, even those few hours were painful, thinking that I might never see you again... don't leave me alone. Lorenzo and Bianca and Ash will help me find a way to fix it!"_

The concerned dragon hugged her big brother, a few tears forming at the corners of her eyes. Latios moved his gaze from the Soul Dew and smiled at his sister.

"_If I don't sacrifice myself, Alto Mare will continue to slowly die. You say that if I did, then you'd be all alone. That's not true. Bianca and Lorenzo will still be here to look out for you, and Ash too."_

Latias just blushed, her white down turning almost as red as her wings.

"_Do you see?" _Latios continued. _"I'm giving my life up so you can live out your life in happiness her… and you won't be alone"_

"…_I barely know him… oh, just wait a few days so we can find another way, can't you? Alto Mare can wait that long." _

"…_Alright. Let's get some sleep."_

"_Okay… good night, brother," _Latias said, reluctantly rising up into the brush of a nearby tree, half expecting him to begin creating a Soul Dew out of himself as soon as she pulled away. Latios just turned away and flew to another tree, looking for a branch to sleep on.

"_Sweet dreams, Latias."_

_._ . .

Deep underground somewhere, thousands of fathoms below sea level, an underwater fissure gaped, occasionally releasing some bubbles from air pockets. Water currents above began to slow and change direction, being forced down into the abyss. More and more bubbles rose out of the fissure, followed by small clouds of sulfur…

* * *

Well, that was probably confusing. This chapter really sets the groundwork for later, so the next chapter or two will clarify what each individual is aiming to do if it isn't clear enough here. Still, I hope it was a worthwhile read!

Please review- Criticism will help me become a better writer so I can make my stories more pleasurable (tolerable?) to read and write!


	3. Loose Ends

Can't say much about the story, other than the pace will begin to pick up in a few chapters.

Disclaimer: Pokemon is the property of Nintendo and Gamefreak, I own nothing except my OC's; Cain, Bastian, and Damian.

* * *

Cain had already woken up and eaten, and was currently still unpacking some of his things into the hotel room; clothes, water, Pokégear… He heard a knock at the door, and went to answer.

"Good morning Cain, have you slept well?" Damian politely greeted him, wearing a leather sweater and fedora, both crimson. Guess the guy just likes red.

"Yeah, thanks. Did you get the investigation settled last night?"

"Unfortunately, no." Damian frowned. "The thieves that took control of the DMA have been arrested and convicted of their crime, but nobody can seem to figure out how they got the machine to work."

Cain was a little confused at this.

"Wait, didn't they have the Latios and the Soul Dew to power it?"

"Yes, but I suspect that the dragons took the Dew and left the museum after I left and before the police could show up. It seemed that they were in a matter of life or death, so I didn't wait around to get in their way. I am off to help close up the investigation so that the museum may reopen."

"Ah…" Cain had expected a grand arrest of the thieves and then peace in the city so Damian and Bastian began research on the DMA. "Wait… so if the museum's closed, what are Bastian and I going to do?"

"Why don't you take a look around Altomare? There's nothing we can truly being to work on until the museum reopens completely; until then I'll look into repairing the DMA." Damian smiled and looked past Cain out his room window. "It's a nice day for it too. Do wake up Bastian, will you? I don't want him to be sleeping through the week."

"Alright, catch you later Damian!" Cain closed his door and thought about what to do. This was one project he was particularly excited for because he got a company-paid trip to a beautiful city, and he didn't have to do much work aside from moving things for Bastian or keeping people from distracting him or Damian. Now he had a whole day or two open! Cain agreed with Damian that he should now wake Bastian, as he didn't want to have to wait around for the guy to wake up in the evening.

. . .

"Ash, don't you _ever_ wake up?"

It was probably 11 AM when Misty and Brock had already gotten breakfast from the café down the street and come back to their rooms, to find Ash still snoring, sprawled out on his bed.

"Pika…." Pikachu was poking at Ash's head with his tail, wanting him to wake up and feed all his Pokémon.

"MmmmmMm… I choose you.. bulba…zzzzzzzz"

"Chu!" Pikachu finally used thunderbolt to wake Ash up, singing the bed sheets and giving Ash first degree burn, but it was worth it to finally wake him.

"AH! Okay okay, I'm up!" Ash bolted upright. Misty and Brock sighed, glad that he was awake and they wouldn't have to leave him when they began exploring Altomare some more.

"So, anyone for breakfast?" The boy asked, rubbing Pikachu's head as he sat up.

"You're so clueless… it's almost noon, Ash! We've all eaten except you and your starving Pokémon…" Misty chastised.

"Why don't we go ahead and go to that wax museum where we were planning to go, and Ash can meet up with us after he eats?" Brock suggested. Pikachu happily "Pika'd!" in agreement, ready for some chow.

"Okay! Come on, Pikachu, let's go find something to eat!" Ash tossed on his blue-and-white jacket, and dashed out of the room with Pikachu on his shoulder.

"Ash! Wait- …and he's gone." Misty tried to call to him. "And he forgot the map of the town again…"

. . .

Enjoying the warm sunshine, Pikachu sat back on Ash's shoulder as he walked aimlessly around the canals looking for a place to grab some breakfast, if anyone served it this time of day. Pikachu suddenly caught a whiff of some sweet scent in the air…

"Pikachu!"

"You smell something, Pikachu?" Ash noticed his friend sniffing the air, and soon the mouse jumped off his shoulder and started running down the street. "Hey, wait up!" He followed his friend to a bakery not too far away. Plenty of pastries could be seen being baked right inside- Ash drooled, and ran in with Pikachu.

A few minutes later and Ash was sitting at a large table, wolfing down some kind of sweet bread. All of his pokémon were sitting on or under the table, munching on cookies that Ash had bought them. Brock carried most of the Pokémon food, and there wasn't any being sold at this bakery, but Ash figured that they'd be fine eating it. Some people gave him strange looks for having six pokémon at the table with him, but Ash ignored them. When he was almost finished, Ash thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He looked up and saw a girl in a green polo shirt and white skirt walk up and tap on the glass of the shop window. Bianca- or Latias?- smiled at Ash and waved for him to come outside.

"Huh? Uh… Bianca?" Pikachu hopped onto his usual place on Ash's shoulder as he stood up and walked back out the door. Ash's pokémon followed him outside, curious who this girl was. Their trainer walked over to her.

"Hey, what's up?" The girl just grabbed his hand and took off, dragging him across the plaza and into the labyrinth of streets and alleys. His pokémon looked at each other and shrugged, figuring that they'd enjoy some of the freedom outside of their pokeballs. They wandered off blindly, much like their trainer, a strange group in streets full of humans.

Meanwhile, the girl led Ash around sudden turns down a path that seemed familiar to Ash.

"Latias? Hold on a sec, my Pokémon are still back there-" He pointed out as he tried to slow her down. She turned around and gave a slightly stern look at him, as she couldn't speak telepathically when in this form. Latias tugged on his arm again, and continued to lead Ash through the city. They eventually reached an enclosed, shaded spot where Latias immediately pushed Ash into a wall. It melted away, as it had the last time he came here, and led into a dark hallway that opened up into a beautiful garden. It looked the same as it had yesterday- several small pokémon were wandering about in the grass in the shade of the massive trees growing everywhere. Everything was green, except for the white marble walkways that the two ran down towards a fountain, also marble, at the end of the garden. The fountain fed into small waterways that crisscrossed around the garden, but they weren't flowing as Ash had remembered- the water was more static. Latias, still with Bianca's appearance, pushed him up to the edge and pointed into the water.

"The Soul Dew goes here… you got it back last night, right?" Ash asked, not sure what she was trying to say. Latias gave him a look that said "yes-and-no," then pointed again. Ash looked in this time and saw that the Soul Dew was back its pedestal, but it was dark and stagnant, instead of containing a glowing, spinning light like it had the last time he saw it. He wasn't sure what this meant or why Latias wanted to show him. When he turned back to Latias, she had changed back to her natural dragon form so she could communicate with Ash.

"_Latios said that Dad's soul is dying because it was out of the water for too long last night," _she burst out immediately. _"And Latios wants to sacrifice himself to fix it and Lorenzo and Bianca don't know what to do… Please, can't you help?" _Her telepathic voice sounded sorrowful and desperate. She looked over Ash's shoulder back into the fountain.

Ash immediately knew that he wanted to help- he was aware that the Soul Dew kept water running through the entire island, and he definitely didn't want a Pokémon to die; and a legendary Pokémon, no less. But he honestly had no clue how to fix it- he barely knew how it worked! Still, he had to try to find some way…

"Don't worry," He assured Latias. "I'll find something to heal it… maybe if Lorenzo, Bianca, Brock, Misty and I all work together, we can do it!" Latias gave a small, happy squeal. She could tell that he didn't really have something worked out already, but she was thankful that he would comfort her and help find a way to save her father's soul. "Where is Latios, anyways? He probably knows more about the Soul Dew than any of us, being a Latios."

"_He's flying around the coast, trying to think. We've already looked at the stone thingies over there…" _She flew over to the inscriptions on the ground by the fountain, which depicted the Defense Mechanism of Altomare as well as a Latios flying over it. _"But it only talks about how the Soul Dew can be destroyed, not fixed." _Latias flew back over to the fountain and hung over it, checking on the Soul Dew again. Ash couldn't stand seeing her depressed like this.

"Well, let's go ask Misty and Brock, maybe they will know something! They're gym leaders and have a lot of experience with Pokémon." Ash suggested, hoping it would lift Latias' spirits. He put his hand around her shoulder, and tried to lead her back up the path out of the garden. She looked at him, and he gave her a reassuring smile. She cheered up a bit, thinking that maybe she really will save the Dew and Latios with his help.

* * *

Kind of a short chapter, I figured I'd just leave it on this part and put the rest that I had written into the next chapter.

Hope it was an enjoyable read, and I'm always open to criticism or suggestions!


	4. Introductions

I apologize for the large delay in updates- Between 6 honors classes and moving my sister to college, I've only had a bit of time here and there to write up the next chapter. It's slightly longer than usual, to help make up for this.

Thanks loads to everyone who's read this story, added it as a favorite, or reviewed- these definitely motivate me to keep the story going!

I hope you enjoy the read!

Discalimer: I own nothing but my OC's, Cain, Bastian, and Damian.

* * *

"Alright, so where should we go first?" Cain asked Bastian as he led the way down towards the coast of Altomare. Bastian sluggishly followed, miffed about how they couldn't get back into the museum yet.

"I don't know."

"A shame that the water festival ended yesterday, Cloyster and I would have loved to race. We could still probably rent water chariots from somewhere…"

"Mm."

"Okay then." Cain figured that Bastian wouldn't be very enthusiastic until they got back into the museum. The two young men kept walking and reached the waterside after a few minutes, with the sun still fairly low in the sky and reflecting thousands of rays of light off the water. "Beautiful, isn't it."

"I suppose. Wasn't too bad to swim in last night."

"Waking up now, are we?" Cain teased a bit. "But I guess you're going to stay here on dry ground while I get a chariot?"

"Yes. If we can't get into the museum, I might as well look at the layout of the city itself. Maybe I could get an idea as to how the DMA controlled the lockdown."

"Really, you're going to keep working? We've got the whole island to explore! Climb a tree! Catch a pokémon!"

Bastian shook his head as if he was dealing with a child. He was, technically- Cain was several years younger than he, and Bastian felt that he didn't have enough ambition. He didn't respond and instead began walking over in the direction of the Latios and Latias statues.

"Live a little," Cain laughed to himself at how out of place Bastian looked in the bright city, wearing a think white coat and black trousers, which looked incredibly uncomfortable in the heat. _Ah well, I'll enjoy myself even if he doesn't. Now, for those water chariots…_ He looked around him for the nearest place that might have rentals, and dashed off.

He eventually found a shack by a small dock and got a hold of a blue and green chariot, then released his cloyster into the water to pull it. It wasn't a bad day for riding around in the water- he was wearing a grey tee-shirt and cargo shorts, and was comfortable in the heat and sun. Cain's cloyster allowed its trainer to wrap the leash around its front horn and tug it to check the strength. The bored clerk just told Cain to have it back in a few hours, and watched with a slightly amused expression as the trainer tried to steady himself. After falling into the water several times, his cloyster began to pull out and jettisoned water through its shell to glide along the coast of the city.

Maintaining a leisurely pace, Cain looked to his side through the spray of water and at the buildings and bridges he passed. He hadn't traveled much before, and it was quite a sight to see the different kinds of boats and floating buildings this edge of the city. He noticed that several people were frustrated, trying to get their larger vessel unstuck from the sandy bottom of the canals. .

"_Strange," _Cain thought. _"Folks from around here would probably know better about where to dock their boats... this water is pretty shallow for it" _He noted that the water was also full of debris, like small branches and plenty of shards of wood.

He kept on cruising around the edges of the city, becoming awayre that everyone seemed to be having trouble with retrieving things accidentally washed away into the canals, or for the larger boats, stuck. After several minutes passed by, he grew a little bored and encouraged his cloyster to speed up and turn into the canals leading deeper into Altomare itself. As Cain and his pokémon neared the heart of the city, there seemed to be less and less problems with the canals.

"Eh, it's too cramped in here to pick up much more speed. Cloyster, take this right turn back out into the open waters… and… you missed it."

The shellfish suddenly accelerated and took a breakneck turn under a bridge and down a narrower canal.

"Hey, I know you like to get excited, but slow down! We're going to crash at a turn or something!"

His pokémon didn't slow down, but rather kept racing through the waters, taking one sharp turn after another until Cain was completely disoriented. His head spinning, he barely kept a hold of the leash that tied him to the crazed pokémon. Suddenly he was swept off the gondola into a stone wall and slid down to into the waters.

"Augh! What was that? Cloyster, come over here!" He called, before his friend could dash off again and get lost. Fortunately, he immediately stopped and began paddling over to Cain.

"That hurt… what happened back there?" Cain suddenly felt another impact in his chest and was pinned against the wall, a large haze thickening in front of him. Soon it cleared and a large blue dragon was revealed, hovering in front of Cain with eyes glowing. Cain's body was also shimmering with a similar light blue color, the Latios' telekinesis holding him back.

"_What were you doing in the museum last night?" _A sudden harsh yet cool voice forced its way into Cain's mind. He was too shocked by the dragon's sudden appearance to try and struggle.

"Ah! Y-you can talk! Latios…" He was pushed against the wall again by the invisible force.

"_What did you want with the DMA?" _Latios wouldn't relent. Cain maintained his composure to try and reason with the angry Guardian.

"We- the two other men and I- just came to check it out and learn from it. No harm done, we didn't have anything to do with those women-"

"_Well in case you haven't noticed, the golden-haired one didn't have a care for the well being of anyone, he nearly decapitated me!" _He gave Cain another psychic shove as he recalled Damian striking the cage Latios was in with a military saber, which easily could have hit him. The cloyster began charging up an ice beam for whaling on his trainer so much. Cain caught this out of the corner of his eye.

"Cloyster, wait! It's ok," He called, not wanting to get in a fight with this dragon that already had a firm hold on him, feeling bruised up already. "Listen, Damian was just helping how he could! I'm sure he doesn't seem like it, but he has your best interests in mind!"

"_As a rare and valuable Pokémon, maybe. But after you left, he basically said that the city can drown for all he cares, as long as he gets access to the Defense Mechanism." _Latios snorted. _"But we have bigger problems than your friends running around Altomare. Tell him to leave us alone or I'll drive you all out." _He threatened. The dragon had presumably finished his rant and seemed to be leaving, as the psychic grip on Cain lifted slightly.

"Wait, Latios! You're talking about the water draining, right?" The trainer shouted, not wanting such a rare encounter to end so quickly. Latios tilted his head a bit.

"_So_ _you've noticed, eh?" _He questioned sarcastically._ "Yes, as you can see around the city, the water isn't being pulled to Altomare anymore. It's because the Soul Dew was corrupted last night by the machine."_

"A… oh, I think I remember reading about that thing- so it _is_ real! Well, Bastian has told me how he's studied aqueducts or something, he's really knowledgeable about architecture and this kind of stuff. Just give us a chance to help?" He pleaded. Cain really felt the need to help out this city, and maybe impress this legend. Like most trainers, one of his dreams was always to encounter a legendary Pokémon.

"_And let you get close so you can catch me in those pokéballs? Not a chance." _Latios suddenly vanished and Cain felt the power over him fade. He looked at his cloyster, still pulling the chariot, which looked completely lost. He probably hadn't heard a word of Latios' telepathic side of the conversation.

"Well, if the machine is causing this, then I guess we'd be a little responsible for wanting to activate it, even if we don't use it… Cloyster, pull that chariot back over here, will you? I'd need to see if I can track that Latios."

. . .

Ash had found his way out of the secret garden with Latias' help (mainly involving her having to tell him that every turn he took was the wrong one) and made his way over to a small wax museum somewhere in the labyrinthine Altomare. He saw Misty holding Togepi and Brock standing around outside; looking irritated that Ash seemed to have ditched them again.

"Hey- Misty, Brock! We need your help!" Ash called to them excitedly, hoping that they'd know some way to help fix the corrupted Soul Dew. He and Latias ran up to them.

"Ash, if you didn't want to go to the wax museum, you should've said something!" Misty chastised, more disappointed that he kept running off than angry.

"Hey, you're Latias, right?" Brock noticed the dragon back in disguise as Bianca, though he could only tell who she truly was because he had never actually met Bianca. She confirmed this with a nod, aware that they already knew who she was; there was no point in trying to hide from them. Besides, they were Ash's friends, and he said that they could really help.

"I'm sorry! But Latias really needs our help - can you explain it to them?" Ash asked Latias. The disguised guardian gave another nod, and waved for them to follow.

"Isn't she going to tell us what you need?" Brock asked. Ash shook his head.

"No, she can't talk to us here. C'mon!" Misty and Brock exchanged looks, but followed Latias. They were close to their destination- Lorenzo and Bianca's house by the gondola shop that Lorenzo worked in. Latias ran up to the carved, wooden door and knocked, with Ash, Misty and Brock crowding behind her. Bianca answered the door, and smiled when she saw "herself" knocking.

"Hi Latias! You don't need to knock, come on in! And Ash, and… who are these people?" She questioned, a little concerned, and stepped back to allow them all into the foyer. The entrance room also had sturdy wooden walls, but was filled with intricate carvings and artwork to give them the elegant charm that most of Altomare was filled with.

"W, hello. I'm Bianca," she awkwardly introduced herself to Misty and Brock, not sure why Latias would reveal her existence to more strangers.

"Hi…?" They were both confused by this Bianca who could talk, uninformed that she was a human and Latias just preferred to disguise herself as Bianca. Ash saw his friends look from Latias to Bianca and back, and caught on to what they were missing.

"Oh yeah, this is Bianca. She's Latias' best friend and…"

"And she likes to disguise herself as me a lot," Bianca finished for him. "So why'd you bring them here, Latias?" Latias took her natural, dragon form again in the privacy of Lorenzo's home.

"_Well, Ash said that they might be able to help us with our crisis. You see, the Soul Dew that holds the water in our city was broken last night, and now the water's slowly going away from Altomare," _She explained to Brock and Misty. They seemed to understand- Ash had probably told them about the events at the museum the night before. _"Do you think you'd know anything that could help bring the water back?" _Latias pleaded.

After a moment, Brock replied first.

"Sorry, I don't know anything that the man from the museum told us. I'm an expert with breeding, not souls and these things. I'm truly sorry."

"Hey, why aren't you acting all pathetic like you usually do around girls?" Misty questioned, suspicious. She, Ash and Pikachu had all come to expect such behavior from Brock at least twice a day.

"Please Misty, I'm no pedophile. I'm only interested in the older ladies. Mm.. Nurse Joy…" Bianca looked horror-struck that her friend had seemed to bring a sex fiend into her house. Misty slapped him justly.

"Well anyways, I _am_ a gym leader that specializes in water. I haven't heard of anything like Altomare before, though… a city where water is held to it by a Pokémon's soul. I've seen schools of kingdra and gyarados that can have some control over tides, but they always destroy everything with tornadoes and storms in the process," Misty admitted.

"That's it! We'll tame a bunch of gyarados and kingdra so that they _don't_ destroy the city!" Ash excitedly clapped his hands together, figuring the problem solved. Latias chirped happily along with him.

"Ash, you _can't_ tame kingdra or gyarados without a lot of effort, let alone enough to make a controlled flood big enough for this island!" Misty stressed. "You'd need a legendary Pokémon for something like that."

"And that's why Latios wants to sacrifice himself- he's basically the only one that can save the city." Bianca explained, both she and Latias getting a little depressed thinking about it. She sat down on a nearby chair. "Well, thanks for trying… if grandpa can't figure something out, nobody can."

"Lorenzo is her grandfather," Ash explained to his friends. "Well, we can't give up! Latias, where's Latios and Lorenzo anyways? If Misty works with them maybe they'll figure something out that they didn't know before! Besides, trying and struggling is better than waiting around for Latios to give up and turn himself into a Soul Dew." The trainer kept pushing for some way to fix or replace a Soul Dew. Bianca, Misty, Brock, and Latias felt their spirits rise at his idealistic thinking. If anyone could save Altomare, it would take someone as determined and brave as ol' Ash to find it.

* * *

Not a bad chapter, in my opinion. Things have finally begun to pick up the pace. I wouldn't be surprised if I decided to re-write this story, but my priorities are on making progress on finishing it while I can.

As always, criticism is much appreciated. Until the next chapter, later!


	5. Convergence

Oooooooooooooooooookay so I procrastinated more on this story than I intended. But after deciding the story wasn't heading in a direction I liked and re-writing the entire thing, I think that I'm more inspired to keep writing. Thanks to Super-Asian, Control the Divine, and the Silent Insomniac for reviewing, glad to know that people are willing to take time to read this. Without further ado, I'll go ahead and skip to the story itself. Smaller chapter, but I'm going to be updating at least bi-weekly now.

I do not Own pokemon, only my OC's Bastian, Cain, and Damian.

* * *

"Alriiiiiiight, fresh air! Gotta tell ya, it feels like I was in that stuffy ball for _days_!"

"Shut up Totodile, you were out just yesterday swimming all around the place and dragging Ash away from the race."

Bayleef was yet again finding herself annoyed by her fellow Pokémon's hyperactivity. They had managed to find their way to a less crowded part of town at the edge of Altomare along with Cyndaquil and Noctowl after Ash had left them alone when he was pulled away by some unknown girl. Ash's other pokémon had ventured around the city independently, and the whole group agreed that they could find their way back to the Pokécenters by nightfall.

"Loosen up, Bay! My point is that we're on our own for once, let's _do_ something." Bayleef shrugged, she could at least agree here.

"Yeah, Team Rocket's interrupting us before we can relax… meanies," Cyndaquil added in. Noctowl stayed silent overhead. "Hey guys, shouldn't we stay closer to the city? We're starting to get kind of far away."

"Nah, it can't be a problem while we can still see the city, right? I say we check it out!" Totodile sprinted off of the stone paving onto the grass that bordered Altomare, far into the island untouched by the canals or ocean. A plain of grass lay in front of the pokémon, climbing in altitude before it dropped back into the ocean on the other side of the small isle. The Big Jaw pokémon flopped down onto the grass, arms splayed out. "This is nice… this vacation has been pretty calm, even with that commotion last night… we didn't even have to do anything."

Bayleef joined him to lay down on the soft grass, joined by Cyndaquil.

"Wait… this doesn't feel right." Bayleef squirmed, trying to feel what was wrong with the soft earth. "Either of you guys feel this?" Her companions shook their heads. "This doesn't feel like it's very healthy grass… it gives me the sense of withered plants, but it looks just fine to me." Noctowl fluttered down from his path high above the group and pecked at the meadow himself.

"It's just grass, right? I'll bet you're just unused to grass by the ocean… right?" Cyndaquil questioned and tilted his head to the side in confusion, unable to understand Bayleef's observation of grass being both dead and live. They all shrugged the feeling off and wandered about more around the island of Altomare.

. . .

Ash, Misty, Brock, Bianca, and Latias had all come to an agreement to find Lorenzo at the museum to see if they could have any new theory of how to mend the Soul Dew. The group didn't want to get their hopes up, and they really had no idea on how to even begin their task, but Ash was determined to keep moving and hoping that something could come to them. Latias had once again assumed the form of Bianca, who along with the real girl, led Ash and his companions past some more personal areas of the city. They took time to point out cafes where the girls had fun making up stories about how they truly were twins… a theatre that Latios and Latias had snuck into invisible, but Latios had accidentally floated in front of a projector, casting a noticeable ripple across the picture… Latios asserted that Latias had bumped him in front of the projector, but she always claimed that he had actually fallen asleep and drifted around in the air.

"Then whenever I'm at classes, Latias likes to pose as me and pretend that I played hooky… yeah, like I'd do that." Bianca shot a playful glare at Latias, who tried to look innocent.

"Hey Bianca," Misty asked, "How did your family end up meeting Latias and her brother anyways? If the garden Ash told us about is supposed to be so secret, and all."

"Well, when Latias' dad gave his life to make the Soul Dew, the whole garden just kind of sprung up along with the waters, or so my grandpa says. And since its right next to the museum, some of the staff would be bound to wander in. Grandpa was the first, then decided to lock down the entrances and keep the garden secret. Then he also found Latias and Latios, still babies then, and made sure to check in on them every day. He brought me, and we kind of grew up together like sisters." Latias nodded happily to agree with her friends' story. The group had wandered (the only way they travel) farther into the city by now, and Brock had been enjoying himself looking at the different species of pokémon living in the canals. Something seemed odd, which he questioned Latias and Bianca next about.

"Are the canals always this… well, junky? Looks like there's a lot of stuff clogging up the waterways."

"That can't be good for the pokémon…" Ash ran to the waterside and looked in, followed by Latias. "I guess that would be part of the water level falling, right?" As if to answer his question, a particularly large nearby yacht had hit the bottom with a "thud" and tipped a bit, knocking some ropes overboard and into the water. Latias fell back into a sullen mood, reminded of the peril that her brother or home was in. She stood up and changed back into her dragon form and swiftly made herself invisible before anyone could notice a glimpse of red.

"_I think we should go find Latios first now. I want to make sure that he won't try sacrificing himself while we're all out around town… I just want to make sure he's safe." _Bianca nodded understandingly, though she couldn't see the red dragon.

"Alright. We're almost at the Museum of Altomare, so how about you just bring him back there? I'm sure we can calm him down…" there was little reply, Latias having flown off quickly. The rest of the group then kept walking towards where Bianca said that Museum was without a lot of talk. As far as they were concerned, Misty and Brock had gotten used to Ash getting dragged off by some legendary pokémon or another, and they would always be there to lend him a hand. It would be just fine with them to help out once again. Deep down, Ash's two friends felt a little left behind, but they would still do anything to help.

Pikachu had been riding silently on Ash's shoulders all this time, and his ears perked up when he noticed a heracross sitting at the top of one of the trees that lined the sidewalks.

"Pika!" The electric mouse pointed in the direction of Heracross after catching Ash's attention.

"What, Pikachu? Uh… Oh no! I completely forgot about my Pokémon… Hey, Heracross!" Ash ran over to his Pokémon, and saw that it was holding some fruit- a papaya maybe?- and sucking on it happily. A young man was standing at the base of the tree, trying to coax it down.

"Seriously, get down here! I bought that thing… give it back!" He began trying to shimmy up the thin trunk, but failed. Ash approached the guy after he collapsed back on the ground.

"Hey, sorry to bother you, is that your fruit? I can get it back for you… Heracross! C'mon down here, you can't just take stuff from people!" The fighting-bug pokémon obediently hopped to the ground and held up the half-eaten fruit. "Well, I'm not sure if you want to eat it anymore…" The young man waved his hand in dismissal.

"Ah, no, it's fine. Just a fruit… but anyways, this your heracross? Looks like he's in pretty good condition."

"Thanks! I'm training to enter the Silver Conference, and Heracross has come in handy in my gym battles." Ash not-so-discreetly pulled his jacket open to show the 7 badges he had so far gotten.

"Way to be modest, Ash.." Misty equally discreetly mentioned. The guy laughed it off, and extended his hand.

"Impressive. From what I saw from your bravery last night, I'm sure you'll shape up to be a fine trainer. The name's Cain, pleasure to meet you."

* * *

I've spent too much time describing my somewhat dull ending of Pokemon Heroes, but the plot is really going to move forward now that I'm getting my OC's in the mix.

After this next chapter, it should be easy to pick up the story without having watched the 5th movie. Please review, all comments and criticism are welcomed!

Cookies for reading these notes, here's a Sableye I drew: .net/fs71/f/2011/030/c/5/simple_sableye_by_gen_


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